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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The DARTS (US)

Out of the ashes of The LOVE ME NOTS comes a new all girl garage-psych-rock band: The DARTS (US)! The quartet is featuring Nicole Laurenne: Vocals/organ; Michelle Balderrama: Vocals/guitar; Christina Nunez: Vocals/bass and Rikki Styxx: Vocals/drums.

Their two E.P.'s are so brilliant yours truly had no other option than to have a chat with Nicole who told us everything: how the girls met, the release of the two E.P.'s; the deal with London based label DIRTY WATER and the forthcoming Eurotour.

1)
Nicole, you are no newcomer to the Arizona Rock'n'roll scene. We would like you
to tell the viewers of this blog your full story. And first, does your
presence in the Darts mean the end of the Love Me Nots or are the Darts a
side-project of yours.We want to hear it all from you!

You
want to hear it all, huh? Be careful what you wish for…I started playing
classical piano as a kid, eventually traveling and competing pretty seriously
throughout my school years. In college, I accompanied opera students with their
voice lessons and dabbled a little with pop bands in Michigan. Eventually as I
got busier as a law student in Arizona, my classical chops began to fade a
little, so I started a jazz trio that performed regularly for a few years at
the resorts in Tucson. My first experience playing keys in a busy gigging rock
band was a hilarious cover band called Sidebar, made up of judges and lawyers
in Phoenix, that would somehow pack every show they played. That led to my
first ‘real’ rock band, called Blue Fur, which did original new-wave-tinged
stuff and put out a couple of records on our own. Michael Johnny Walker,
guitarist for The Sonic Thrills at the time, saw Blue Fur and we eventually
started up The Love Me Nots together - which is how I met Christina, the
bassist for that group. Michael and I got married a few years later and The
Love Me Nots signed with a label in Paris, so we got to tour Europe and all
over the US many times, in addition to putting out 5 albums and a bunch of
other amazing opportunities. We started our own record label, Atomic A Go Go,
and also put out other records as Zero Zero (electro-fuzz-pop) and Motobunny
(garage-pop) over the years., along with an album by Le Zets (rock).

The
minute I saw Michelle play, I told her I wanted to be in a band with her; that
was years ago at a show in San Diego actually. In late 2015, Michelle was at a
Love Me Nots show in LA and I finally point-blank told her to send me a song or
two that we could work up together. She sent “Running Through Your Lies” and
“Revolution” and I was immediately hooked on her songwriting talent. By
mid-2016 we had recruited Christina and Rikki, who were as excited as we were
to finally put together an all-girl awesome garage project, and the first EP
was written and recorded across two states without all four of us ever being in
the same room at the same time. Bob Hoag mixed all the tracks together and we
all fell in love with it. We did the second EP the same way a couple of months
later.

During
all of this, The Love Me Nots had been touring Europe and working on a new
record, but Michael and I ran into hard times on a personal level and separated
in the summer of 2016. As sad as it is to admit, The Love Me Nots are
presumably over at this point. Thankfully, I have never felt more fulfilled and
excited about things musically and personally as I do right now. Maybe that’s naive, but it’s true. I just
love this new band and my bandmates so completely.

2)
Although the musical styles of both bands are very different, Are you girls not
afraid that the name of the group might cause some confusion with the UK rock'n'roll
revival band of the end of the 70's?

We
were a little concerned until we realized they aren’t doing much currently, and
we added the “(US)” to our name for official purposes to avoid any legal
confusion. So far it hasn’t been an issue. We just loved the fact that ‘darts’
on a shirt are what separates women’s from men’s shirts. Men don’t have darts.
It’s a girl thing, without being necessarily girly.

3)
About the 2 Ten inch records E.P.1 and E.P.2. I can hear a great unity of sound
there, as if all the songs were recorded during the same session and then slip
on two different records. Is this the case? And if so, are they gonna be
reunited in the future on one CD?

We
recorded the two EPs the same way but at different times. But that’s surely why
they sound similar - same songwriters, same recording, mixing, and mastering
processes exactly. When we signed with
Dirty Water Records (London) in December 2016, they decided to re-release the
EPs as one full digital album simply called “The Darts”, which is available on
all digital outlets now. We decided not to release CDs at this point; the
market doesn’t seem to be demanding them so much anymore now that streaming is
so popular. The vinyls are selling well though!

4)
To what kind of music did you listen to as a teenage girl and does it still
influence your today work? What was your favorite band as a teenage girl? Name
3 bands that you consider still have a influence on your own work today.

I
was pretty oblivious to pop music growing up, since I was working so hard on
classical piano at the time. But I remember the first pop tune I ever really
loved was “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates. Later I fell in love with the piano
parts in Journey songs (hey, it was the 80s). But, even though I was no
aficionado, I also remember really liking certain tracks by Prince, the Kinks,
Sinead O’Connor, and a few other artists that were in the mainstream then. I
honestly didn’t discover garage rock until years and years later when I first
heard The Animals, The Seeds, The White Stripes…maybe it was just the right
time in my musical life, but they struck a serious chord in me and sort of
launched me into my own world of trying to find garage rock that spoke to me.
The Darts’ sound grew out of my huge love for Thee Tsunamis, Death Valley
Girls, and Ty Segall. You can hear all three influences pretty clearly once you
know that.

5)
Are you the main composer in the band or is everybody involved in one way or
another?

Michelle
and I have done all the writing so far, although Christina wrote one that is
coming out on the next album later this summer. I’m hoping we all have more of
a hand in writing as time goes on. Michelle and I both have a ton of songs
we’ve written - that were never released by our other bands - which we are having
massive amounts of fun doing with The Darts.

6)
Do you have a video on youtube featuring a track from the 2 e.p's?

We
have two official videos out so far, “You Got Me” and “My Heart Is A
Graveyard”, which I threw together myself using footage shot by the band, our
stylist Kelly Sahr and our tour manager Justin McGrath. A third one, for “Evil
Wayz,” will be out next month, shot and produced by Ryan Kohlman, who did my
favorite Zero Zero video a few years ago.

7)
What can concert goers expect at a DARTS gig? Are you playing any famous cover
songs?

We
play one cover song right now, which has kind of become our anthem: “Batteries”
by the Trashwomen. It has long been one of Christina’s favorite songs but when
we heard them play it at Burger Boogaloo last summer in Oakland, we instantly
knew it was perfect for The Darts to finish every set with. So we do. Darts
shows are sweaty, super loud, punk rock events, with all of us wearing vintage
slips and going mostly barefoot. Sometimes there’s a dog pile on stage.
Sometimes Rikki will spontaneously jump onto the crowd. We don’t really know
what’s going to happen. We just try not to break too many things. Not too many.
Our goal as a band is literally just to have a blast and travel as much as we
can; it’s like a long insane slumber party with your craziest, most fearless
best friends.

8)
When you perform with the DARTS, does it happen that you play an impromptu
version of a song from the Love Me nots?

Nope!
It might be awhile before Christina and I feel like doing that. We’re having
way too much fun putting that behind us and starting fresh right now.

9)
What are the plans for 2017 as far as the DARTS are concerned? Are you girls
coming to Europe soon?

We
will be in Europe starting May 25, for performances in England, France, and
Italy, including a Dirty Water Club show and the awesome Cosmic Trip Festival
in Bourges. We are also already in the process of recording another full-length
record, for release at the end of this summer hopefully, and have US tour dates
lined up with The Jackets (Switzerland) and Weird Omen (France). This band
absolutely loves to do things, to be in constant motion, so there will be much
much more I’m sure.

10)
Anything you would like to say to the viewers of this blog?

Come
see our shows and say hello! Nothing makes us happier than to hang out with fun
people! www.thedarts.us

DIG IT!

Duncan Reid and the Big Heads - "Bombs Away"

THE ROLE MODELS - "Dance Moves"

BABY SHAKES - Turn it Up

Tales of Treachery & The Nefarious Deeds of The Scurrilous Resurrection Men

Click on the cover to buy

Kepi Ghoulie - Lost And Lovin' It!

Click on the cover to buy

Los Pepes - Los Pepes For Everyone

Click on the cover to buy

Juvie - You ain't gonna Rock and Roll no more

Click on the cover to BUY

SEVEN LONG YEARS - Love me now and hate me later

Click on the cover to buy a LOSSLESS version

Thee MARTIAN BOYFRIENDS! BACK FROM PLANET FUZZZZZ

I've been ranting about these little green men with a huge organ for months, now it's time for you to go and buy this stuff. This is simply the best 60's garage band ever. And remember where you read it first! NO HUMAN WILL GET OUT ALIVE....